| 53 feeding on flowing life, generating chilling agues and burning fevers. . . . And I prayed unto God, saying, Oh, God, curse them not, and let me not raise my voice against my fellows! But he said, Curse, curse, curse! I will altogether curse, until they return to me, for they have perverted my law and deceived my servants; unto the Destroyer shalt thou deliver them, for their prayer is sin.'
"Yet later on Strang fell under this very curse-in the matter of polygamy if nothing else.
"Permit me also to say in this connection that all that has been said to his credit as a shrewd, intelligent, capable man, can be multiplied a hundred times without flattery; for all who knew him personally have only the highest praise of his extraordinary ability, and his perseverance and success in whatever he undertook to accomplish. The press notices published in your paper for June 1 could be multiplied many times without exhausting the number or quality.
"CHAS. J. L. STRANG."
-The Saints' Herald, vol. 29, pp. 237, 238.
CHARLES B. THOMPSON.
Charles B. Thompson, who subsequently gained quite a following, united with the church some time prior to 1835, and about that time began preaching. He seems to have been quite successful, and his ministry attended with much spiritual power. A letter from him written from Batavia, New York, February 2, 1841, may be found in this work, volume 2, page 522. About this time he wrote quite an able defense of the Book of Mormon which was published in book form, some copies of which are still extant.
After the death of Joseph Smith he accepted the claims of J. J. Strang. In the Voree Herald for August, 1846, there is a poem from his pen strongly favoring Strang's claims.
Subsequently he claimed that on January 1, 1848, he received a communication by revelation in which he was informed that the church was rejected of God on June 27, 1844, and that it had no power after its rejection to reorganize itself, but that the priesthood having been conferred prior to the forming of church organization, it was not
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